


Dancing through Life

by therune



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 22:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/398900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James finds out that Piper can't dance - mockery ensues. And then dance lessons, followed by disaster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing through Life

There was a reason why you should never trust the Trickster with pretty much anything. If he wanted to help, he was perfectly reliable. If it bored him, he’d wander off and do something else, leaving you looking pretty stupid. Also, the other thing you should not trust him with were facts of life. Or secrets. It usually lead to either blackmail or mocking.  
“Wait, you have never been to Disneyland? Gentlemen, a roadtrip is called for!”  
“Your middle name is Neyle?”  
“What do you mean, you can’t dance?”

It had only been an off-hand remark. Piper had been forced to take dance classes by his parents, because it was unthinkable that a son of the Rathaway family was unable to do anything but shine in a social setting. He absolutely hated it. And he was really bad at it, too.  
It was supposed to be his way out of going undercover to the opening of the museum exhibition, where a rich patron had thrown a party in order to celebrate himself and his generosity which absolutely wasn’t a scam where he robbed his own exhibits and collected insurance money. Not that they would find out that particular detail before they tried to steal the artifacts and all of them were gone already.

Anyway, James absolutely wanted to go to the opening. They all suspected it was because of the free food, and were mostly right. And because their better options they usually used for spying were on holiday (Roscoe and Lisa had sent them a postcard from Martha’s Vineyard), or had caused a scandal at the last opening they infiltrated (Sam had flirted with someone who had later turned out to be the queen of a small eastern European country, and their kiss had graced the front page of several newspapers the next day), the Rogues were okay with James giving it a try. It surely couldn’t be worse than the one time they let Digger try and then the museum had been on fire because of him (they still hadn’t figured out _how_ exactly).

But since they were too smart to leave James unsupervised, they convinced Piper to accompany him. Which led to the involuntary confession from Piper that he didn’t really know how to dance. So, after two solid hours of needling, pleading and that childish repeating-game, Piper agreed to let James teach him how to dance.  
He still didn’t like dancing, didn’t like what it meant for him, all that shallow parties, full of egotistic people, full of greed and pretense.  
But, dancing with James was different. It wasn’t dancing because you had to, but because you wanted to. It was like playing music, like playing along, like floating. James - brash, loud, childish James, seemed different. No, he was the same as he had always been, but Piper saw him in a different light. Yes, James was still playful, but it was fun and graceful at the same time. He seemed to soar, even on the ground. And when he smiled, it was still bright, still with shining white teeth, but at times, it was serene. Suddenly, he was beautiful.  
And Piper understood. Dancing was more than “take this step at this time, turn, do this and do that”. It was how James went through life, with infinite grace and joy in every step. Piper learnt a lot that day. And the least part was how to do a simple foxtrot.  
He would always remember the warmth of James’ hands, his voice patiently guiding him and the big grin he gave Piper when he had mastered a new move.

Of course it didn’t last, ultimately James said something utterly hilarious, Piper snorted with laughter and James had found a new way to mock him. The dance lesson ended, they went to infiltrate the opening, and Piper’s first dance partner accidentally impaled his foot with her heels. At least the Rogues visited him in hospital after the heist went sour.


End file.
